I plan to sand lay a brick patio, walkway and some other areas. About
2,000 sq.ft.The town where I live is demolishing some old brick buildings, I can get some of the rubble. One of the buildings is built with cored bricks, not sure of the other.
Questions:
-- dadiOH
Not to my knowledge, especially for walks, etc. Also, I recommend a sand base at the very least.
Old lime mortar is generally easier to remove. Sometimes rubbing two bricks together removes what doesn't fall off in transport.
Get some help. Sorry, I'm busy that week. ;o)
Nope
Not overly difficult. I've seen a few brick yards where they paid people by the brick to clean them. Mostly, they sat on a low bench or on the gund next tot he pile anc chipped away. I think it is one of those things that by the time you'd done 20 or 50, you know just how and where to hit the mortar to free it.
Nah, 2030 at best.
I had that job once. When I was a young teenager, a friend's dad was a builder. He was building some apartments when a windstorm came through and blew over several large walls he'd just built. We spent many weekends chipping off brand new mortar, he paid us a nickel a brick or something like that. Your're right, eventually you figure out how to hit it to make it come off in almost one whack. The small bits were the hardest.
I hope I don't have to do that job again!
Note, wall brick and pavers are not the same thing: pavers will stand up to the job far longer than some bricks. Your job may not last very long using recycled brick.
Yep, this is exactly what I've seen done. the surface eventually spalled off all the bricks in this application, possibly from repeated freeze/thaw. In any case, sure you can do it tha way, the only reason bricks are generally laid flat is that maximizes the surface a given brick covers: you could put them on end if you've got the patience. The finished patio will be thicker than average, but that's not a bad thing.
The old lime mortar is easier to remove or so I've been told. I've read a repeort of someone who got a summer job doing that and generally they picked up two bricks with mortar and clapped them together and the mortar fell off.
You shouldn't. The one problem I had with stubborn mortar resulted in higher brick breakage, but that was with portland based mortar. Buy extra brick.
John
It will take a lot more bricks that way, but you can have some interesting patterns and a nice solid result. There are two problems however. First, those are construction brick and are not fired the same as paving brick. They are generally not very suitable for paving and you may find the surface deteriorating in short order. They also may not allow for as many variations of placement as they are not likely to be a nice even (X:1) ratio of length to width.
Having done it, I can tell you it varies. Some are easy some are almost impossible. It can be mean nasty work.
It can be a good long term hobby.
Some old bricks were well fired and last even for pavers, some are junk and in a few years will look bad, some old mortar can be a nightmare to remove some is easy. I would try to find someone knowledgable with bricks to test one before spending alot of time with soft junk. Nothing worse that having your work fail because of the wrong product.
The three-hole bricks are probably well-fired and quite sturdy.
There is a significant market for used (and reusable) brick. Some pay premium prices.
Not to knock my previous home owner again but he used 3 hole bricks for lawn edging. They too turned to rock chips. He didn't do too many things right in this house. The only bricks not turning to rock chips are the left over pallet of bricks he left me. I guess because they are not in contact with the ground.
(snip)
Well, not quite that quick, but by the end of the first hour at least. They sell hammers sized and shaped for the purpose. On the occasional big clump of brick, a big wide cold chisel helps split the clump like a diamond.
Nah, it'll just feel like it.
No, I didn't do it for a living, but on a couple seperate occasions as a kid, my old man paid me piecework rather than the usual hourly when stuff like this came up. In hindsight, I think he was trying to teach me something. Probably did 10,000 or so. 3 cents a brick, as I recall- decent money for a 14 year old, back then, as long as you kept up a good pace. (small-town construction companies could still get away with breeding their own help, back then.)
aem sends...
Tell me about it...$1.50 each to buy.
These will be in Florida, no freeze/thaw cycles.
Bricks - in one form or another - have been used for 1000s of years. Many still survive. Don't know when bricks in the current form came into useage but my grandmother's family's house was built (in Indiana) in 1830. Has brick walls close to three feet thick, still survives.
Tens of thousands of miles of American streets were paved with brick. Again, I don't know when that started but certainly there are many well over 100 years old. And they are still in great shape...except where utility companies dig up a section to get to their wires and pipes and didn't put them back well. Unfortunately, most heve been asphalted over.
I would much prefer to use nice Brazil or Purrington brick pavers...they are made from a different mix, fired harder, are thicker, smoother and most have rounded edges. However, they ain't cheap and the common bricks I have access to are (free). They will do fine in Florida...as I said, no freeze/thaw and there will be light use. Plus, I'm almost 72 so I don't care a whole lot if they don't last to the next century :)
Thanks to all who replied, you have been helpful.
-- dadiOH ____________________________
dadiOH's dandies v3.06... ...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that. Get it at
There are different kinds of bricks for different uses. Bricks that work fine on a wall, may or may not work well as a paver. Man has knows about bricks for a long time and even in ancient times they used different bricks for different uses.
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